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Shippers are watching with mounting concern as measures to combat the coronavirus outbreak in China begin to weigh heavily on supply chains.

Just-in-time inventory pressures are creating more less-than-truckload shipments, giving Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Railway an opportunity to accelerate their domestic intermodal volume growth.

DSV Panalpina enters its “year of integration” in good financial shape, and aims to build on volume and revenue growth.

Close on the heels of setting up a direct payment mechanism for terminal handling charges that beneficial cargo owners have traditionally paid through container lines, Indian officials have now begun a review into off-dock charges.

A federal bill similar to legislation in California and New Jersey that makes it tougher for workers to prove they are independent contractors received the backing of the US House of Representatives Thursday.

There are no positives to be found in the Intermodal Association of North America’s latest market report, which shows year-over-year volume fell 7.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2019 and 4.1 percent for the full year, with declines in all types of containers.

Despite trucking companies and brokers saying capacity is “rightsizing,” spot rates have not increased in tandem with volume and shippers could secure contract rate reductions for 2020.

The price of low-sulfur fuel has fallen sharply off its January highs, but the monthly review period that governs bunker adjustment factor mechanisms means surcharges are going up.

Citing ever-increasing vessel sizes and a desire to not lose future business to private ports, the Indian government will move ahead with the development of a deep-water container port about 120 miles north of its primary gateway Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust.

It's still too early to determine the eventual impact of the 2019 novel coronavirus on global trade, but an extended shutdown of factories and transit lines to and from manufacturing centers in China could have major downstream implications for ocean carriers.

The air cargo business has just reported its worst performance in a decade, and now hopes for a possible recovery in 2020 are in doubt due to China’s coronavirus outbreak.

Maersk will blank six sailings this month due to the coronavirus, and said while the backlog of barge operations from Wuhan was easing, it was working with reefer shippers to mitigate port plug-in power capabilities.

Mexico’s large fleet of small trucking companies is able to more easily access large shippers through a digital matchmaking platform, Sendengo, say company officials.

Major carriers, including Mediterranean Shipping Co. and Hapag-Lloyd, last week announced a GRI of $400 per TEU and $500 per FEU for all types of cargo moving on the westbound Indian trade to the US and Canada, effective March 1.

Amid weak intermodal volumes in 2019, the JOC Domestic Intermodal Savings Index shows spot and contract savings are lower than historical averages, although the year closed stronger for shipper savings on the spot market.

Singapore-headquartered ONE has reported its third consecutive profitable quarter, turning around a dismal first year of operation in 2018 and heading for a positive 2019 fiscal year.

The first real estimate of the impact the coronavirus will have on China’s container supply chain has been made, and it is significant.

The heavily-funded forwarder told JOC.com Tuesday the layoffs are aimed at redirecting resources away from “over-invested” existing process areas into ones that “help us serve clients efficiently.”

Two regional LTL carriers say their new partnership will help increase domestic traffic and set up “international inland” moves in a six-state West Coast network.

More than a year and a half after establishing a 40-foot container rate index on 12 global trades, the Baltic Exchange has started offering its daily Freightos Baltic Index as a benchmark for freight buyers.

Automating certain components of their transportation procurement and management processes can yield more accuracy in handling freight bills, according to Chris Stauber, chief product officer of transportation management software (TMS) provider Haven.

The Georgia Ports Authority outlined an ambitious plan to grow its footprint that includes acquiring new land near its Garden City Terminal to hold more containers, a partial container conversion at its breakbulk Ocean Terminal, and a brand new container terminal.

Bangladesh’s top port of Chittagong says shippers will have one week to move containers that have overstayed their free time in storage that is at 78 percent capacity.

A rush to secure space on trains leaving China could be looming amid coronavirus-related disruptions to air and ocean schedules. Shippers have been advised to plan capacity early.

Data shows that backhaul shippers are being partially subsidized by headhaul shippers; for the Pacific backhaul, that figure is roughly $1.6 billion annually.

The Pacific Merchant Shipping Association says the economic impact -- cargo diversion -- of a proposed clean truck fee in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach as contained in a recent study is based on incomplete information and the analysis should be reworked.

Beneficial cargo owners are increasingly worried that disruptions in the manufacturing and logistics supply chains in China could worsen in the coming weeks due to the coronavirus. One shipper group has asked carriers to extend free time for container storage in the US.

Traditionally, shippers have been responsible for receiving freight bills and ensuring those bills are accurate, but some are flipping that script through “self-invoicing.”

APM Terminals Elizabeth has announced it will launch a reservation system in late February, becoming the second of the six terminals at the Port of New York and New Jersey to operate an appointment system.

Georgia is looking to recapture a good portion of the Chinese frozen chicken import market now that Beijing has dropped a ban that had been in place since early 2015 due to a US avian flu outbreak.

In a lackluster market, ArcBest’s ABF Freight finds it necessary to judiciously mix truckload spot and traditional LTL freight, asset-based, and non-asset services.

Australian shippers are breathing a sigh of relief, at least for now, after a court order was issued preventing longshore workers from striking against DP World Australia amid an ongoing 16-month contract dispute.

With response measures to the coronavirus evolving rapidly, it’s still too soon to determine the impact on container shipping given the seasonal lull in demand driven by the now-extended Lunar New Year celebrations.

While the post-IMO 2020 chaos some thought would happen never materialized, low-sulfur fuel prices are on a wild ride down as the bunker supply chain recalibrates under new market dynamics.

A pilot program about to begin in the Port of New York and New Jersey would make the data from the port’s container information portal easier to use and help truckers and shippers more effectively manage their cargo.

JNPT, India’s busiest public container harbor, has issued a trade notice setting a uniform rate scale linked to handling services for transshipment containers as part of what it called a move to “eliminate discrepancies.”

The UK formally leaves the EU at 11pm Friday, Jan. 31, beginning an 11-month transition period where its future trading relationship with the EU will be determined.

Trucking companies and brokers expect low rates to persist a while longer despite a surge in December and early January, and there’s no consensus as to when, or if, a sustained turnaround will take hold later this year.

A Chinese government mandate extending the Lunar New Year holidays due to the deadly coronavirus means carriers and US ports will experience slack-season volumes well into March.

As its US network gets faster and more automated and e-commerce demand keeps growing, UPS is taking aim at small to mid-sized businesses in 2020.